Pete F
Titanium
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2008
- Location
- Sydney, Australia
Recently somebody asked in another thread about the surface finish of 3D printed parts. Unfortunately that thread became polluted by people not involved with 3D printing, hence I walked away from it. Nevertheless I'm always keen to try to help those with a more open mind who are keen to see if 3D printing may be able to assist with their needs.
I've attached an extreme close-up of a 10 mm test cube, shot with an extension tube to try and get in as close as I can for those interested. It was just a quick shot and even though I stopped down, those who know anything about photography will appreciate the depth of field is difficult to attain with such macros, and I don't have time to focal stack the images. However hopefully it will convey enough information to be able to judge whether the finish is good enough for their purposes. The focus is about a third of the way back (ie 3-4 mm) from the nearest corner to the lens.
The part is a test cube that I use when experimenting with different plastics and when tuning the printer. It was just sitting next to the printer is not selected or reworked in any way, indeed it wasn't even dusted off! The profile shows the bottom and two random sides. The part was modelled 10 x 10 x 10 mm and measures 10.14 x 10.22 x 10.35. However I have never properly calibrated that printer for precise size as it's not important to me. I expect I would be able to achieve +/- 0.1 mm reliably however based on past experience. I really should calibrate it and see, however it takes time I don't have.
This was printed quite some time ago so I can't recall any details, however the material looks like PLA and the layers probably 0.2 mm, somebody could perhaps count them, but I normally don't bother with 0.1 for most applications. The cube sits on a 6"/150 mm rule for scale and a blue shop towel for texture. Unfortunately I don't have a surface roughness meter to advise an objective roughness of finish. I'd suggest if you need one, FFF is not for you anyway.
Hopefully that helps some people.
I've attached an extreme close-up of a 10 mm test cube, shot with an extension tube to try and get in as close as I can for those interested. It was just a quick shot and even though I stopped down, those who know anything about photography will appreciate the depth of field is difficult to attain with such macros, and I don't have time to focal stack the images. However hopefully it will convey enough information to be able to judge whether the finish is good enough for their purposes. The focus is about a third of the way back (ie 3-4 mm) from the nearest corner to the lens.
The part is a test cube that I use when experimenting with different plastics and when tuning the printer. It was just sitting next to the printer is not selected or reworked in any way, indeed it wasn't even dusted off! The profile shows the bottom and two random sides. The part was modelled 10 x 10 x 10 mm and measures 10.14 x 10.22 x 10.35. However I have never properly calibrated that printer for precise size as it's not important to me. I expect I would be able to achieve +/- 0.1 mm reliably however based on past experience. I really should calibrate it and see, however it takes time I don't have.
This was printed quite some time ago so I can't recall any details, however the material looks like PLA and the layers probably 0.2 mm, somebody could perhaps count them, but I normally don't bother with 0.1 for most applications. The cube sits on a 6"/150 mm rule for scale and a blue shop towel for texture. Unfortunately I don't have a surface roughness meter to advise an objective roughness of finish. I'd suggest if you need one, FFF is not for you anyway.
Hopefully that helps some people.